Ship of the Valkyries
by faeryqueen09
Summary: Star Trek Voyager with a Norse legend twist.
1. Chapter 1

The stars blurred in the sky above Commander Chakotay's head the usual sharp shimmering pinpoints stretching into blazing lines of white. He tried to shake his head to clear his vision but if his neck was still attached to the rest of his body, a fact he was unsure of currently, it appeared to no longer be functioning. Time seemed to both slow down and speed ahead. Was he floating or falling? The unbidden thought that he had been trying to banish floated back into his mind, was this it? The end he could no longer escape?

As part of the Maquis he had accepted that any moment could be the last. Expected it even. Expected to die fighting in a blaze of glory aboard the _Val Jean_ for what he fiercely believed in. As the first officer aboard Voyager for five years now, the ship had become home, the crew family. Even so, alone and far from earth, they never could quite afford the luxury of feeling safe.

Now here he was, on a planet that he had never even known the name of, on the far side of the galaxy. In the dark. It was so dark. Except for the stars. If only he could keep from falling into the stars.

2 Days Earlier

Captain Kathryn Janeway sat aboard the bridge of her ship, the USS Voyager. It had been an uneventful day. An uneventful week in fact. She appreciated that the lack of action was getting them closer to Earth faster, but there was a reason she was a Starfleet officer. A quest for discovery and exploration beat in her soul. Peace and quiet made her ancy and while she never admit it to anyone except herself, she was never quite content with a complete lack of peril.

A ping interrupted her thoughts, and a brusque voice came over the bridge's internal com system, "Seven to Captain Janeway."

The Captain looked up, "yes Seven, what is it?"

"Please report to astrometrics, I have found something I believe you will find interesting."

"On my way." Janeway said. Turning to her first office she rolled her eyes slightly, "still giving me orders on my ship."

Commander Chakotay chuckled next to her, "better than trying to assimilate us all I suppose."

"Come on Commander, let's go see what is so important," she said getting out of her chair and walking up the few short steps to exit the bridge. Chakotay followed her as she called over her shoulder, "Lieutenant Paris, you have the bridge."

Together they entered the turbolift and walked down the hall to the astrometrics lab where they were greeted by the newest member of their crew the ex-Borg drone, Seven of Nine.

"Captain, Commander," she said nodding at each of them in turn. Wasting no time with pleasantries as usual she turned and drew their attention to a large map of a planet hanging in the domed front of the lab. "I have been taking some time lately to conduct long range scans close to, but not directly along our present route. Therefore, this attracted my attention this morning. Long range scans indicate the presence of substantial amounts of benamite on an M class planet approximately 12 lightyears off our current course. "

"Benamite?" Janeway breathed, "are you sure?"

"More scans will be necessary to determine for certain, but the current metallurgical data is very promising. Also, although we are still too far away to be certain, the planet appears to be uninhabited."

"Thank you Seven for bringing this to our attention. Please continue your scans and inform me of any new updates." The captain turned to her first officer, "What do you think Chakotay? Worth making a detour? This is what we need, with enough benamite crystals was can begin work on the slipstream drive again."

Chakotay grinned. "Well, it's not too far out of our way. With a working slipstream drive hopefully we'll be making up that detour by a few thousand lightyears."

"All right then," Janeway decided turning back to look at the map again. Slip stream drive. It had been out of their reach for months now. But with a working drive, they could cut close 10 years off their journey home. She touched her badge, "Janeway to bridge,"

"Yes Captain," the lieutenant's drawling voice came back.

"Tom," she ordered, "set a new course."

A few hours later, after Seven had confirmed that the planet in question did in fact have the benamite that they were looking for, Captain Janeway called for a meeting of her senior officers. Standing in front of her briefing room the Captain surveyed those sitting in front of her. She had begun by telling them about Seven's discovery and the excitement over the discovery of the benamite crystals was palpable. Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres immediately launched into a discussion of the most effective way to construct and install the new slipstream drive. Neelix was listing off lavish food courses for his newly planned, 'Return to Earth' party which he insisted the entire crew attend.

Janeway settled her hands on her hips, "Okay" she said bringing everyone's attention back to her. She couldn't help grinning, "I am as excited as you all are over this potential way of getting home faster. However, first things first, we need to get to the benamite. Commander Chakotay will lead the away team to find the crystals and ascertain the best way of getting them back on board. Tom, you and B'Elanna will go with him."

Chakotay stood up next to her, "We'll reach the planet by 0700 hours. As soon as we are able to confirm that it's safe down there, we'll beam down. The benamite we're looking for is on the night side, and due to an extremely slow rotational speed, it will be dark for the next 47 days. So we'll need to bring some lights."

The Captain put a hand on his shoulder, "dismissed," she added.


	2. Chapter 2

How long had it been? Chakotay wondered. How long had he been lost in the stars? Minutes? Hours? It was so dark. He tried to think back, why was he here? What had happened? Slowly, it began to trickle through his memory. The dark planet. The benamite.

Standing on the transporter pad with Tom and B'Elanna. Their atoms reconstructed when they reached the surface. The plantet had no moons and it was the darkest of night, and immediately they turned on their SIMs beacons. B'Elanna had flipped open her tricorder and scanned for half a minute before pointing her light at what appeared to be the entrance to some caves close by.

"The strongest concentration of benamite seems to be located in those caves over there," she said without looking up. "If we set up some more of the lights closer to the mouth, I can go in, find the crystals, and start figuring out the best way to get them out."

"Sounds good," Chakotay said. "Tom," let's get the lights over there."

B'Elanna got a head start walking towards the cave with her SIMs beacon shining a narrow path of light in front of her. Tom had bent down to pick up more of the equipment, he straightened, arms full and immediately stumbled over something in the dark.

"Ow!" He complained loudly.

"Stop messing around back there" B'Elanna yelled over her shoulder nearing the entrance of the first cave.

"How did we get the great honor of fumbling around on the perpetual night side of this forsaken planet?" He kicked whatever it was that he had fallen over into the blackness, they heard it land and suddenly without warning the sky ripped open with fire, terrifyingly bright in the blackness that surrounded them. Chakotay grabbed his phaser as he yelled they were under attack. The light was so bright he couldn't even see any aggressors and he had to try and shield his eyes. He fired, though at who, or what, he couldn't say. He tried making it to Tom and B'Elanna but there was another flash of light filling the air, and this time shock waves running through the ground. There was screaming, or was that him? Something hit him in the chest, knocked him back onto the unrelentingly hard ground.

Darkness enfolded him but his retinas burned with the afterimage of the light in the sky. Where were the others? Tom? B'Elanna? He could hear nothing. See nothing. He tried to call out, but his faint raspy voice barely reached his own ears. He tried to use his combadge, but his hand refused the order from his brain. It was so dark.

His thoughts drifted back to Voyager. It was still in orbit and Captain would soon realize that something had happened, that they were attacked. Kathryn would come for them, and would take them all back home.

If not, perhaps he would see his father again, his grandfather, his ancestors. The stars blurred. If he could only hold on to the ground, and keep from falling into the stars. But fall he did and as he fell a star burned bright, his eyes catching the light before closing into the unending darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

Chakotay opened his eyes to see the star right in front of his face, a haze of distorted light so bright he immediately squeezed them shut. Slowly he opened them again and while the radiance had dimmed, either the light was still washing out everything in sight, or his vision would not focus properly.

"I thought I died," he muttered to himself.

"You did."

He started as the soft yet sharp words reached his ears. They held no meaning though once the familiar voice registered in his mind.

"Kathryn?" He struggled to sit up. "Captain, we were attacked. Did you find Tom and B'Elanna? I never saw what happened to them." He was still fighting to see through the light, though as the room finally began to focus around him one thing registered, this was not Voyager.

"You have been chosen" the voice said to him again.

"What?" Frustration at his situation and lack of vision was beginning to rise up. "Kathryn, what is going on?"

Suddenly the room cleared and there she was. Or rather, there she wasn't. The woman in front of him lowered a hood on a long red cape. She looked like Kathryn Janeway, the same face, the same height. Her hair, shook loose from the hood, was longer and flowed over her shoulders. Her Starfleet uniform was gone, replaced by a jumpsuit the same color as the cloak. Her shoulders, torso, and forearms were decorated with some kind of armor of all things, and black boots encased her legs to the mid thigh.

She folded her arms over her chest, looking as intimidating as ever. "What did you call me?" she asked.

Chakotay shook his head hoping to clear it. What was happening to him? Had the attack left him with brain damage? He fervently hoped the room would shape into Voyager's sick bay and the Doctor would be standing there telling him that his mind was just playing tricks on him.

But no, he had been right before. He knew every corridor, every Jefferies tube, every inch of Voyager and this was not a part of the ship. This room was small, the top of the walls carved with intricate designs. A woven rug picturing a ship on the ocean lay on the floor. If it weren't for the small viewport on the wall across from him, he never would have known he was in space.

The woman was still standing there, staring at him.

"What is going on?" he groaned again flopping back on the narrow bunk where he had awakened and grimaced when he missed and his head hit the wall behind him. "Captain, where are we?"

She looked him over from head to toe and repeated her words from before, "You died, and you have been chosen."

"Chosen for what? And if I died, how am I here now?" For the first time since the attack the events on the planet came rushing back, the unseen enemy, his injury. Knocked down, sure he was going to die staring at the stars. He put his hand on his chest and looked down. There was nothing there, not even a singed thread on his Starfleet uniform. For some reason, this made him angrier than ever and he sat up so fast that his head spun. He was certain now that this was some trick.

"Who are you and what have you done with my friends? How did I get here? Where is our ship?"

She gave him a sly, very un-Kathryn like smile. "My crew has been watching you, and we have seen that you are a great warrior. You have been given the great honor of being chosen from the fallen. You called me Captain and that is correct. This is my vessel, I am Captain Kath. Welcome to the Ship of the Valkyries."


	4. Chapter 4

Chakotay tried to ignore the fact that very little of what she had said made sense to him, and instead pressed onwards. "Why are you holding me here? You must return me to my ship. my crew will be looking for me."

"You are our most honored guest, not a prisoner," said the Captain, Kath, whoever she was, her eyes narrowing in a look Chakotay knew oh so well. "My crew has chosen you, and you will now travel with us. You are safe here. Come Chakotay," she said, snapping her fingers and turning abruptly towards the door, her red cape twirling lightly along the ground behind her. "You will meet them now."

Chakotay stared at her retreating form, his mind churning. He still had no idea what was going on. The fact that she knew his name intensified his belief that this was an elaborate trick or hoax of some kind. Or worse still, perhaps Voyager had been hijacked and the Captain taken over by an alien of some kind. However, he wasn't going to figure it out or get back to Voyager by sitting in this room though. Swinging his legs around, he stood up off the bench and followed her out of the room.

She led him down a corridor with elaborate wall carvings at the top of the bulkheads following him down. Chakotay reached up and ran a hand over the intricate woodwork. There were layers of incredibly detailed swirls knotting and twisting around. Intertwined into the design were figures of women, horses and dragons. He had never seen anything like it on a ship before.

"These are beautiful," he murmured.

"Yes," said the Captain over her shoulder, "they tell the story of my people."

She did not elaborate any further and they entered what must have been the bridge. It was smaller than Voyager's bridge, only encompassing four chairs. Two of the seats were in front, and two in front of computer stations in the rear. Two women sat at the stations tapping on their screens.

The Captain motioned to each of them, "my helmsman, and my operations officer." They each nodded in reply and then returned to their work. As Chakotay stepped further into the room, he felt as though he had stepped into the sky. The entire front of the bridge appeared to be made of glass that not only stretched the length of the wall but also over the top of their heads and down below his feet. It was a peculiar feeling as though he had simply left the ship and walked into the vast immensity of space. They were surrounded by the stars. Looking up, Chakotay felt as though he could reach out and pluck one from the sky. This, he imagined, was what flying truly felt like.

Mesmerized as he was he didn't notice another woman standing up from one of the two seats in front and walking around to him. When he finally did notice her he was so startled by her presence he took an involuntary half jump back. "Seven?" He asked, incredulously.

The woman glanced at the Captain who gave a shrug and then turned back to him. While she unmistakably was Seven of Nine the differences were startling. Gone were Seven's Borg implants. On board Voyager, she always wore her hair tightly wound on her head. Like the Captain, this Seven wore her hair loose around her shoulders. Chakotay caught himself thinking that he had never seen her blonde hair down before. She wore the same outfit, armor and boots as the captain, only her jumpsuit was blue.

The Captain spoke again, "this is my first officer, Ana."

"_I'm _your first officer," Chakotay muttered under his breath.

Either the two women didn't hear him or they chose to ignore his statement. Seven, Ana - all of this was making his head spin- stepped towards him. "We chose well. It is an honor to have you on board, commander." Her Borg implants may have been gone, but the abrupt tone of her voice remained.

Captain Kath spoke again, "Ana, please maintain command of the bridge, I am showing our guest the ship."

Ana gave a curt nod and returned to her position at the front of the bridge.

Chakotay felt disconnected from everything. Was Seven part of this deception too? Lost in his bewilderment he had barely noticed that the Captain was leaving the bridge and he hurried to catch up with her. "Captain," he breathed following in her wake. "Captain please, you say I am not your prisoner but then you have no need to keep me here. You must allow me to make contact with my ship."

She stopped so suddenly he almost ran into her. Her expression softened as she took in his confusion, and she laid a hand on his arm. "You cannot return to your ship. I am sorry. You have entered our realm, there is no returning to yours."

"Your realm?" Chakotay asked, confusion mounting, "have you taken me to a different sector? If we trespassed in your space I am sorry."

Now it was the Captain's turn to look confused, albeit only slightly, "your world is not ours. We cannot be a part of your realm."

When Chakotay's mind finally wrapped around what she was saying the truth hit him like a kick to the chest. "You mean," He breathed, "you've taken me to a different universe?"

"You are now in our world," she said again. "We are the Valkyrie. We observe the battles in all the worlds and choose among those who fall to travel with us. Death is the only way to bridge the realms."


End file.
